Project Details

The Design Challenge

In May of 2015 Aavid, Thermal division of Boyd Corporation, in Bologna,
Italy received an urgent request from our favorite student racing team -
Solar Team Twente from the University of Twente.

They had designed, built and tested an amazing solar car with one and
only ambition: win the World Solar Challenge 2015 driving across the
Australian Desert. In 2012 Aavid had developed a cooling solution for
their solar-powered control electronics. Now they needed a radical
weight reduction to help improve the solar car’s performance.

Timing was short. To make the race qualification deadline, we needed to
conceptualize, analyze, build, test and deliver prototype cooling solutions
in just a few weeks. Working closely with Solar Team Twente, that is
exactly what we did.

The Aavid Solution

The existing solution used by the team was developed by Aavid in
Bologna, Italy in 2012. It was constructed from formed aluminum fins
brazed to a baseplate. During the tests for the competition in 2013, the
team observed that in operation the heatsink was “too cold to be true”.
At a weight of 0.74 kg (1.6 pounds), the cooling solution was clearly
oversized, overweight and over performing for the latest reduced heat
load.

We needed to very quickly re-optimize the design for minimum weight
while maintaining adequate thermal performance. Analysis showed that
we could significantly reduce the fin height and pitch. The team decided
to stick with the brazed assembly process, so the base and fin
thicknesses were set at the minimums required for brazing.

Modeling predicted that Aavid could to reduce the weight of the thermal
solution by 50% reaching 0.36 kg (0.8 pounds) while meeting the
thermal requirements. Aavid rapidly formed the fins, used CNC to
machine the base, brazed together the entire structure, sand-blasted it,
and applied a black anodize finish to enhance radiated transfer.

Solar Team Twente completed the test and the results were exactly as
Aavid predicted - great thermal performance at half the weight. Best of
luck to Solar Team Twente in Australia!